SCOTUS crowds cheer, jeer ruling

When news broke that the Supreme Court had ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby on Monday morning, supporters of the company lined up at the bottom of the Court steps jumped up and down and chanted “Hobby Lobby wins!”

The long-awaited decision on the last day of the Supreme Court’s 2014 session brought loud crowds both for and against the mandate, and fiery reactions when the Court ruled that closely held companies did not need to provide contraception coverage to employees. Even the winning side didn’t think the fight was over.

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“I believe we can abolish abortion,” said Missy Martinez, 28, the national high school program coordinator for Students for Life in America. “We keep fighting, case after case.”

Each side carried favorite slogans on signs: The anti-Hobby Lobby side’s catchphrase, displayed on signs with illustrations ranging from boardroom doors to Steve Carell in “The Office,” was: “Keep the boss out of the bedroom.” The pro-Hobby Lobby side raised simple black signs with the white slogan “#teamlife.”

Martinez said her generation is more on #teamlife than its predecessors. She cited polls that show anti-abortion sentiment growing, and that the technology to see fetuses in the womb is turning young people away from abortion.

NARAL President Ilyse Hogue vowed that those disappointed by Monday’s ruling would work to change it.

“We’ll be asking Congress to right this wrong,” she said. “The most important thing is that we move forward.”

Many people holding abortion rights signs were young — still in college and there as interns.

“My grandmother fought for Planned Parenthood,” said Jenna Archer, a 21-year-old intern at the National Organization for Women who attends Pomona College. “My grandma didn’t think I’d have to be fighting today.”

She stood with another NOW intern, 20-year old Corinna Svarlien, who has an “I love Obamacare” bumper sticker on her car in Kentucky. Svarlien, a Scripps College student, said she sees the ruling as threatening to college women in particular.

“I can’t shop around for jobs with the right plan,” Svarlien said.

“The court made the wrong decision. They let a lot of people down,” said Sara Lewis, a 21-year-old intern with the National Council of Jewish Women. Lewis, a student at the University of Rochester, was quick to point out that faith groups didn’t belong only to the pro-Hobby Lobby side: “We’re a faith group. We’re part of religious coalitions.”

While many people on both sides were young, some who came to see the decision firsthand were no strangers to the Court. The Rev. Paul Schenck had seen the Court from both the outside and the inside — Schenck was the plaintiff in 1987 Supreme Court case Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network of Western New York, a case dealing with abortion buffer zones. Schenck considered Monday’s ruling — and last week’s abortion buffer zone ruling — a victory.

“I have business people — business families — who felt threatened under the mandate,” he said. Schenck is Roman Catholic, but he ticked off other faiths that share similar views about the contraception mandate: Most Christians, he said, many practicing Jews, some Buddhists and most Muslims.

But, Schenck said, he doesn’t oppose all of Obamacare: He’s a proponent of universal health care.

“There should be universal health care for the child and for her mother,” Schenck said.

Zachary Tyree, a 21-year-old intern from the Family Research Council heading to George Washington University Law School in the fall, had a similar view.

“Our rights come first from God,” said Tyree, an evangelical Christian who just graduated from Liberty University. “The government must protect those rights.”